We are super excited and very thankful to the Wolfson Foundation for the recently announced round of funding which includes new support for expanding our plant research facilities in the Lancaster Environment Centre.

This will enable us to expand and improve our capabilities to investigate plant response to change spanning from the whole plant level to physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses of crops and wild species. This project is led primarily by Marj, supported by Sam, and with Elizabete, Steve, Ian, and Doug also involved.

Big welcome to Jacqueline who has joined us starting from today!
She’s here for a 7 month research visit from Brazil to continue her postdoc work looking at plant responses to silica nanoparticles.

A slightly delayed but nonetheless warm welcome to Armida and Caty who join the team to work on the RIPE project.

Armida joins as a postdoc and Caty is joining as a biochemistry technician.

They’ll both be contributing to our work on rubisco regulation in cowpea and soybean to contribute to delivering improved varieties to farmers, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa.

Update: applications are now closed.

A new role in the team is now advertised as part of work on photosynthesis, Rubisco and wheat with Elizabete.

This Plant Physiologist postdoc role is part of the BBSRC Institute Strategic Programme Delivering Sustainable Wheat, this project aims to decipher the mechanistic regulation of Rubisco synthesis and degradation and how this process impacts photosynthetic efficiency and nitrogen use efficiency in wheat. The wider project goal is to contribute to optimising the wheat canopy function and interactions between source and sink. Initially for 3 years, there is the potential to extend this position.

Applications close 14 June, with interviews to take place shortly after.
This position is available to start as soon as possible for the successful candidate.

Informal enquiries are welcome, but applications must be made via the jobs portal at the link below.
Full details, instructions on what we are looking for, and how to apply, can be found here: https://hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=0491-23

If you or someone you know are looking to do a MRes in plant science, and have an interest in photosynthesis, and the potential of agricvoltaics to contribute to cleaner energy production on farms, then this position could be just right.

Sam & Elizabete have a MRes position advertised which aims to better understand the potential benefits of solar-tracking PV, this project will test how patterns of shade proposed for plant stress management affect crop performance, in particular coordination of photosynthesis with water use and/or photoprotection.

For full details on funding and eligibility check here: https://tinyurl.com/2s3r8s62

Potential students are strongly encouraged to check the link above and get in touch with Sam if they are interested.

Fay has recently joined us to begin a PhD on the heat tolerance of photosynthesis in cowpea.
She’ll be working with Elizabete and Sam.

Welcome to Lancaster Fay!

Congrats and well done to PhD student Duncan who submitted his thesis on Rubisco Activase shortly before the Easter break!

Within the Lancaster Environment Centre a PhD project is available on carboxysome engineering, which is aiming to build upon our previous work towards assembling a cyanobacterial carboxysome in plant chloroplasts. This is the central part of attempts to build a cyanobacterial CCM within plants to boost photosynthetic efficiency.  This project will involve in vitro and in planta analysis of existing transgenics lines, generation of new lines and work to optimise the synthesis and assembly of carboxysomes within plants. This project is co-supervised by Marj Lundgren and is based entirely in Lancaster, though with possibilities to visit national and international collaborators for some aspects of the work. This project would suit a student interested in plant synthetic biology and who has or would like to develop skills in molecular biology, biochemistry, and plant engineering.

Full details including the application process can be found at this link, please note that due to funding this project is only available to students who qualify as UK ‘home’ students: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lec/graduate-school/phd/phd-opportunities/#building-a-plantbased-carboxysome-to-improve-photosynthesis-371066-1

Informal enquiries from students are welcome, but applications must be submitted using the instructions linked above.

We are currently recruiting several team members including a Specialist Biochemistry Technician, which is a different type of role and can be a better fit for how some people want to contribute to the research.

Rhiannon, one of our RIPE team members and Specialist Molecular Biology Technician shares some thoughts about why this role really suits her:

‘I have been working in the Photosynthesis Team at Lancaster University for over 6 years and my current role is Specialist Molecular Biology Technician. I feel extremely lucky to be part of this diverse team of friendly and supportive scientists. This role enables me to focus on the methods and techniques, in order to plan and complete experiments in an efficient and safe manner. My strengths lie in designing and carrying out high quality, reproducible experiments and supporting post-docs and PhD students by maintaining a well-run and organised lab, and helping with the technical aspects of their research. I like to contribute to publications through writing a methods section, producing a figure or providing feedback on a draft manuscript or conference presentation, but there is less pressure in this role to lead on these outputs, which suits me really well! It’s important to me that the research I do is worthwhile and being part of the RIPE project enables me to contribute to something that aims to improve the lives of the world’s hungriest people.’

Updated 20/03/23: DTP applications for this year are now closed, but the LEC project below is open until March 31st. Details below

We have 2 PhD positions open to application, based wholly or partly at Lancaster!

These are both led by Doug, with different collaborators and program specifics. Some details are below but please carefully read the linked pages for scheme details as they are quite different.

As part of the BBSRC NorthWestBio DTP a project is available on understanding more about the possibilities for biotechnology using bacterial microcompartments as inspiration. This project is co-supervised by Leighton Pritchard (Strathclyde) who is a computational biologist and Mark McLaughlin (Belfast, chemistry). The project is Lancaster based but will involve some time spent at Strathclyde. The student will get to experience an interdisciplinary project by combining in vitro molecular biology and biochemical analyses with in silico approaches to expand our understanding of the potential to use modified BMCs for biotechnology. It would suit a candidate with interests in molecular biology, biochemistry, protein engineering, and computational approaches.

Full details including the application process and eligibility for the DTP can be found here: https://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvls/graduateschool/northwestbio/projects/bioscience/engineeringbacterialmicrocompartmentsforbiotechnology/

Within the Lancaster Environment Centre another PhD project is available on carboxysome engineering, which is aiming to build upon our previous work towards assembling a cyanobacterial carboxysome in plant chloroplasts. This is the central part of attempts to build a cyanobacterial CCM within plants to boost photosynthetic efficiency.  This project will involve in vitro and in planta analysis of existing transgenics lines, generation of new lines and work to optimise the synthesis and assembly of carboxysomes within plants. This project is co-supervised by Marj Lundgren and is based entirely in Lancaster, though with possibilities to visit national and international collaborators for some aspects of the work. This project would suit a student interested in plant synthetic biology and who has or would like to develop skills in molecular biology, biochemistry, and plant engineering.

Full details including the application process can be found at this link, please note that due to funding this project is only available to students who qualify as UK ‘home’ students: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lec/graduate-school/phd/phd-opportunities/#building-a-plantbased-carboxysome-to-improve-photosynthesis-371066-1

Informal enquiries from students are welcome, but for each project, applications must be submitted using the instructions linked above.